He seemed quite overcome by my misfortune." "By your misfortune ?" "Yes." "Then you feel quite sure that it was your misfortune he deplored ?" "He gave me one great proof of his sympathy, at any rate." "And that ?" "He burnt the sole evidence that could at all have criminated me." "What?
the accusation ?" "No; the letter." "Are you sure ?" "I saw it done." "That alters the case.

This man might, after all, be a greater scoundrel than you have thought possible." "Upon my word," said Dantes, "you make me shudder.

Is the world filled with tigers and crocodiles ?" "Yes; and remember that two-legged tigers and crocodiles are more dangerous than the others." "Never mind; let us go on." "With all my heart! You tell me he burned the letter ?" "He did; saying at the same time, 'You see I thus destroy the only proof existing against you.'" "This action is somewhat too sublime to be natural." "You think so ?" "I am sure of it.

To whom was this letter addressed ?" "To M.Noirtier, No.

13 Coq-Heron, Paris." "Now can you conceive of any interest that your heroic deputy could possibly have had in the destruction of that letter ?" "Why, it is not altogether impossible he might have had, for he made me promise several times never to speak of that letter to any one, assuring me he so advised me for my own interest; and, more than this, he insisted on my taking a solemn oath never to utter the name mentioned in the address." "Noirtier!" repeated the abbe; "Noirtier!--I knew a person of that name at the court of the Queen of Etruria,--a Noirtier, who had been a Girondin during the Revolution! What was your deputy called ?" "De Villefort!" The abbe burst into a fit of laughter, while Dantes gazed on him in utter astonishment.
"What ails you ?" said he at length.
"Do you see that ray of sunlight ?" "I do." "Well, the whole thing is more clear to me than that sunbeam is to you.
Poor fellow! poor young man! And you tell me this magistrate expressed great sympathy and commiseration for you ?" "He did." "And the worthy man destroyed your compromising letter ?" "Yes." "And then made you swear never to utter the name of Noirtier ?" "Yes." "Why, you poor short-sighted simpleton, can you not guess who this Noirtier was, whose very name he was so careful to keep concealed?
Noirtier was his father." Had a thunderbolt fallen at the feet of Dantes, or hell opened its yawning gulf before him, he could not have been more completely transfixed with horror than he was at the sound of these unexpected words.